>>36940795Nintendo more than likely actually considers Pokémon number one given it's already well past halfway to outselling Mario in a fifth of the games in two thirds the time on the market and is the best selling media franchise of all time.
The only reason it seems like that isn't true, is because Game Freak doesn't let them help.
They were in fact offered help with both Trash Go and the game next year and declined it.
They'll take help from others - like Iwata who didn't work at Nintendo at the time - but it's like after the Game Boy era they became terrified of being treated like the incompetent fools many of them appear to be.
Masuda probably saw it as a point of pride originally and since Gen 3 didn't tank like he was afraid of, it blew up his stupid fucking head to the point he thought they could handle everything themselves even though they demonstrably can't.
